DAVE KARPINSKIDave Karpinski is Vice President of NorTech and Director of NorTech Energy Enterprise. He leads the organizations efforts to accelerate economic growth in Northeast Ohio's advanced energy industry and has over 20 years of private sector experience in a variety of manufacturing-related industries.

Our region's initiative to harness the abundant wind energy in Lake Erie to generate electrical power for the region recently received some good news.Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo), a regional economic development organization created to grow an offshore wind energy industry in Northeast Ohio, recently received a $4 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), plus $1 million from LEEDCo's partners on the project. DOE funded LEEDCo to pursue the initial step in creating this new industry by first building a demonstration project in Lake Erie. This infusion of capital will allow the project, called “Icebreaker,” to move forward into the engineering, permitting and development phase, and then eventually compete for an additional $47 million to construct the project - five to nine wind turbines / 20-30 megawatts capacity - located seven miles off the coast of Cleveland in Lake Erie.Remarkably, for such an abundant resource, there are no offshore wind turbines installed in US waters. However, it's a burgeoning market elsewhere, with a value at over $200 billion in investments. Europe alone has 1,500 turbines already connected to the grid in ten countries, and is on track to employing over 250,000 people by 2030. China, India and Japan are evolving their wind turbine projects into the commercialization stage. South Korea recently invested $9 billion for a project to be completed by 2019. The offshore wind industry represents a tremendous opportunity for the country, and specifically for Northeast Ohio.To borrow the phrase “it takes a village,” an undertaking of this magnitude takes the teaming of best practices and experienced partners who have already done it in Europe, with local firms and people with deep knowledge about our region, the Lake, our assets, and our community. This combination of firms with first-hand experience coupled with committed, knowledgeable and competent local companies is the best way to get the project done successfully and on time while building the industry here. LEEDCo has been focused on building the industry here since its inception and the approach of marrying real-world offshore wind experience with local firms has been a core element of LEEDCo's strategy from the outset. LEEDCo has assembled such a world class team and that team was a key component of winning the grant from DOE.As part of this strategy, LEEDCo is partnering with the maritime and energy experts from DNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability. Headquartered in the Netherlands, DNV KEMA will provide engineering, testing, inspection & certification, and verification services essential to the project. Their offshore wind project know-how and experience will bring established knowledge and best practices to bear on what is an industry here in the States just being born.However, while proven knowledge of the offshore wind industry is critical, just as important are those in our region who are experts in a number of other areas equally critical to success, including: • County, state and regional regulatory practices • State policies • Deep understanding of the history and characteristics of Lake Erie • Water transportation on the Lake • Local large equipment manufacturing • Building local community supportOne such local LEEDCo partner is environmental law firm McMahon DeGulis. This group is adept at understanding the regulation of growing industries that provide alternative sources of energy. Their expertise includes environmental permitting, local zoning issues, transactional matters and enforcement. They have already proven to be an extremely valuable partner to LEEDCo over the past several years. Their contribution over the next year of the project will be extremely important.

The meshing of international industry and local experience will not only help build a platform for the growth of offshore wind industry expertise in Ohio, but will also make our region attractive to additional European based companies to set up shop in our region and hire locally. Companies specializing in geotech services, offshore construction and engineering and project management may all find a U.S. home in Northeast Ohio not too far down the road.

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2017
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